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Old 3rd October 2007, 10:09 PM   #31
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Here's something that bugs the hell out of me. Propellerhead's Recycle. I was looking into its feature because I wanted to get something with HDMI support so I could scsi my ESI-4000 and transfer samples over that way instead of using the SPDIF all the time. Straight off of their website:

Quote:
Again, we encourage and help you to replace hardware.

Due to the diminishing use of hardware samplers, ReCycle 2.1 only supports software samplers and other music software. But don't despair. If you own a computer, and we think you do, chances are you already own one or two of the supported music applications listed here. And even if you don't, you're still in the clear: the ReCycle 2.1 toolkit contains all the software you need to get creative with your ReCycled loops, grooves and breaks.
So... the still huge base of people that use hardware samplers just doesn't exist now?
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Old 6th October 2007, 03:24 PM   #32
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Old 6th October 2007, 04:14 PM   #33
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Agreed and to this day there isnt one soft sampler that actually feels like a sampler. The NI Kontakt, Mach5, Digis one, Es24, Halion are all ultra bloated and yet none of them offer what a samplist needs. Incredibly as far as I know you cannot sample in to a soft synth and that part of the process is the very process that can give you a creative spur because your using your ears not your eyes. To think the S range is about twenty years old and they were produced with this as standard. And the mice that comes with them are all still working. So how come my Roland mouse lasts for twenty + years but my Logitech PC ones last aboyt a year
DirectWave by Image-Line samples, so does the EmulatorX2.
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Old 6th October 2007, 10:50 PM   #34
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I used to work with an Akai s3000xl, I liked the time-stretching function especially on vocals when you put the quality on low and the duration on 200-300%. After getting a coffee and a sandwich you'd have - t.h..a..aa...e..t - ultimate dirty drum 'n bass vocal sample. I've been thinking about getting an s3000xl (or one of the more recent models, if they have this feature) again especially for this, you don't hear this effect in modern dance tracks anymore. A big loss, if you'd ask me. I didn't like the interface on the Akai, it took a long time before I got my mind around it.
Nowadays I sometimes use an Emu SP1200 to get some dirty padsounds and sometimes for drumsounds, I'm not completely convinced about this sampler/drumcomputer yet. The filters can be nice, but they can't be modified unless you're willing to screw the SP1200 open and 'feel lucky' on the variable resistors with an oversized screwdriver. The 12bit grittyness is something I like very much and sampled drums can be used, in conjunction with the filters, to shadow the same drums in high quality adding a phat layer. I could also use a great outboard EQ and a compressor and make even phatter drums, but there is centainly something special about its vile sound.
There's another EMU (E4000?) sampler in our studio with a broken display - I'm not sure if I could remote control it with my Mac pro and a USB->SCSI converter. I would love to use it and experience the filters and probably the same userfriendlyness as I have enjoyed on the SP1200.

My favourite sampler at this moment is my (t)rusty old Sequential Circuits Prophet-3000. Its converters make the sound very warm and the analog filters are inspiring. I love the extensive modulation options, it's very synthlike (I imagine the EMU sampler must be like this too, plus it has more filter types?). The filters sound great but they're not the best to create very interesting evil bass sounds with, they're more of the friendly kind and I find those very suitable for creating dreamy synth-ish sounds based on samples of real instruments. From oboe to electric guitars, it has a bit of the Sasha/Junkie XL flavour (but better/completely different) altough I believe they do most it with the Massivo - which I also use. The interface, which is a seperate desktop/lap controller connected by a phonecord, is semi intuitive and quite fast to work with, naming samples, programs is a bit tedious though - it does have graphics and not only text as some other samplers, I had a blue backlight modded into it. I love its vintage value, this was the first 16bit sampler and it was quite revolutionary and groundbreaking on the previous mentionted grounds, but due to the soon following demise of Sequential Circuits less than 150 were produced and the first half are plagued by bugs, luckely mine belongs to the second half. The downside of my sampler is it only has 4mb of ram and it doesn't accept anything more hightech than Syquest drives as a recording medium (I tried everything to get SCSI memorycard readers work). 4mb is however more than enough for my uses since I record everything back into my sequencer.

Software samplers are complete pants in my eyes. The primary reason being: none of these SAMPLE!! You'd expect an effect plugin you can use as an insert, complementing a software sampler so it can record, but no!! I did consider Halion at one time, because it accepted dragging a dropping from audio tracks.
However I must mention a very handy software tool I've been using intensively it's called 'audio hijack pro' for the Mac, on the PC there's a program called 'virtual audio cable'. I sample a lot of sound, mostly from downloaded movies and especially crappy vintage series, with this on my laptop but also from some strange audiogenerating programs. This is a great leap in technology in this area, it beats having to record everything on VHS or DAT you watch in order hoping to catch a couple of samples and kicking yourself in your head when you missed a great sample and didn't have tape running. I don't watch tv anymore btw.

I don't use many plugins but I do use Kontakt 2 to play some converted Akai sample-cd's with vintage synth sounds and some ethno libraries (these are really underappreciated and cheap now). The 'futuristic' interface hides a lot, most importantly common sense. Most folders in the browser are having their names cut off due to the limited width of the file section I can't see what I'm doing and where I am in my sample structure, while the 30" cinema screen is begging for more. Everything else is hidden underneath tabs and unclear menus my Roland Dj-70 mk1 was more transparant sometimes. The only nice thing is a feature that can be used to timestretch (vocals) in realtime and sounds pretty neat (but ends up in killing the buggy plugin sometimes).
Battery 3 is also used by me: it's very handy to work out ideas quickly and can test a lot of samples and I hear which one fits best to give me an idea what kind of sound will fit at that spot (later on I can recreate simular sounds with my gear, or just tweak it with hardware EQ and compression) - it's hard and tedious to do that with the hardware samplers I worked with and with battery I just click on next (same with Kontakt btw). Also there's a great option in Battery 3 to change the pitch of a sample without changing the duration and freaking around with the quality, thus creating completely new sounds. A big **** you is you can't automise it and Battery 3 will black-out sometimes when I play with this feature.
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Old 6th October 2007, 11:26 PM   #35
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Quote:
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tx16w
I had one with the Typhoon OS on it. That thing was freaking awesome.
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Old 9th October 2007, 10:15 AM   #36
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hello,
i had a lot of samplers like S1000, S3000, S6000, roland S760, EMU IIIXP and E6400, Triton sampler

and i sold them all !!!

for now , i have an old EMU III keyboard and it's WONDERFULL !!!! the best ever
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Old 9th October 2007, 11:59 AM   #37
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YEp

I got one EIII keyboard too

+1
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Old 9th October 2007, 03:49 PM   #38
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I had an ESI4000, it had a nice almost analogue filtersound, but afwul DA conversion. It was kind of OK to program, but I got tired of always manually loading samples when I opened a new project. And it had really really bad timing when polophony exceeded 10 notes. I also had a Kurzweil K2600X, and though it had some really good sounds for the period it was made in, I found it very hard to programm.

I sold the lot and never missed those machines since using Kontakt. It's just so much more advanced then hardware.
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Old 9th October 2007, 05:36 PM   #39
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if you have to take one out of this few...wich would you take and why????

Roland S 760
Ensoniq ASR 10
Emu Systems E4xt

for electronic music
Roland S760
1U, great sound and with the expansion board it is super, never failed me.
The sound of the S770 however is better IMO (apogee converters).
But only 16mb ram and so big !

The ASR10 has great effects and also nice sound ! Heavy and big.

The roland sample cd series are also killer !

Somebody should release a 1U sampler again... not a workstation with sampling, a sampler !
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Old 9th October 2007, 07:56 PM   #40
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I love how all the suckers in the music industry have switched over to soft-samplers. It makes all of our hardware toys depreciate in value and easier to get our grubby hands on!
I guess I'm a sucker. I'm not really interested in the "sound" of samplers, I just like... sampling. So for me, the soft-sample revolution was extremely beneficial. Y'know, open up the Macbook, get to work. Anywhere. I do a lot of work in cafes and public places, because i find it inspiring.

I used to use Akai samplers. I don't have any nostalgia for them. Clunky, small screens, etc. For me, Kontakt and MachFive are terrific because you can see everything you're doing.

Everybody's different.

c
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Old 9th October 2007, 08:32 PM   #41
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Originally Posted by Silver Sonya View Post
I guess I'm a sucker. I'm not really interested in the "sound" of samplers, I just like... sampling. So for me, the soft-sample revolution was extremely beneficial. Y'know, open up the Macbook, get to work. Anywhere. I do a lot of work in cafes and public places, because i find it inspiring.

I used to use Akai samplers. I don't have any nostalgia for them. Clunky, small screens, etc. For me, Kontakt and MachFive are terrific because you can see everything you're doing.

Everybody's different.

c
I do disagree with the sucker thing. Some people hated working on hardware and I understand why...
Akai, yes. I wouldn't take one for it's sonic abilities. I always thought of them as neutral but with an annoying brightness (until the 5000/6000 anyway)
Compare a Roland S-750/770 or EIII to anything soft and they sound way better to my ears. Fuller, richer, warmer even more musical. But this is in my world which is a different place to other people and this is where the argument ends really.
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Old 9th October 2007, 09:39 PM   #42
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I like USER interface on Soft samplers

but sound sucks

My PPG and EIII samplers blow all soft samplers and most Hard samplers away!!!
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Old 10th October 2007, 12:50 AM   #43
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I'm thinking about trading up my ESI-4000 for an ESI-2000. I know they've got the same OS and that the ESI-2000 has those wicked Z-Plane filters from the Morpheus, but does anybody know if there's any other advantages to the ESI-2000?
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Old 10th October 2007, 01:22 AM   #44
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The ASR-10 is a bang for the buck for it's intuitive interface alone. If you can get a rack unit, it comes with SCSI so loading and saving banks with a Jazz or Zip drive is a breeze. The rack unit also comes with 8 outs allowing you to channel your drum samples to it's own out for proper equalization on a mixer. I am surprised no one has mentioned its powerful effect section that has very unique and rare goodies like special filters, speaker emulations, distortion, compression, wah, pitch shift, and so many others in addition to reverb, delay, chorus, flange, phaser all with detailed parameters. Re-sampling through those effects is just plain fun IMO. It's conveters are not gritty, but do have a character on their own. It's sampling character is one that does not over-do it on the high end or the low end, it's a very plain sound allowing for equalization on all specturms. IMO, this is simply one of the best samplers out there by far.

Then again, isn't it the person behind the sampler and not the sampler itself?!?!?!?
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Old 10th October 2007, 01:30 AM   #45
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Siem View Post
I used to work with an Akai s3000xl, I liked the time-stretching function especially on vocals when you put the quality on low and the duration on 200-300%. After getting a coffee and a sandwich you'd have - t.h..a..aa...e..t - ultimate dirty drum 'n bass vocal sample. I've been thinking about getting an s3000xl (or one of the more recent models, if they have this feature) again especially for this, you don't hear this effect in modern dance tracks anymore. A big loss, if you'd ask me. I didn't like the interface on the Akai, it took a long time before I got my mind around it. ........
Siem, a friend of mine has an S2000 (10 outputs, spdif) for sale. condition: mint, box, manual etc. for a very reasonable price of course. It's actually in A'dam (in storage) I could find an old (but working) mac with scsi with recycle and the Akai software too. I also have two hardly used Zip drives plus plenty disks. (hardly used) Daisy chain with mac and S2000 was possible. PM me for info if interested, I'll hook you up.

I went over to the dark side myself. (software) I do use a Korg ES1 phrase sampler to feed my doepfer.
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Old 10th October 2007, 07:25 AM   #46
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I like USER interface on Soft samplers

but sound sucks

My PPG and EIII samplers blow all soft samplers and most Hard samplers away!!!
The "sound" is the same as moving WAV or AIFF files around your DAW. These days, a sampler is just another form of digital audio editor. There is no inherent sound. There is a lack of a sound. That may be what you're responding to.

An EIII has a "sound." You find it pleasing. That's cool. Me, I have no romance for the "sound" of samplers. I just like moving audio around. Sampling is just a tool, a means to an end. Speaking only for myself here.

- c
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Old 10th October 2007, 07:39 AM   #47
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Voting the Roland as my favorite.... the EMU and the ASR both have their strenghts but the Roland just had the sound. Grab the S770 if you can, not sure why but the outputs sounded "thicker" to my ears and there's the added benefit of internal hard drive

just my 2 cents
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Old 10th October 2007, 10:16 AM   #48
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I had the S770 since it first come out in the early 90s for amount of money. Very expensive.
But the sound ... yummy !

I also like my K2000 too.
Both have a huge sound that it seems that is missing today.
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Old 10th October 2007, 03:57 PM   #49
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emax 1 for me cos of the sound, i dont care about the memory or lack of timestretch etc. Put it with a pc setup and use it that way. the best hands down for the sound V price.

a s/w sampler can take care of all the donkey work and memory intensive stuff, so buy an old hardware sampler only for the sound only. In my dream studio i'd have 8 emax racks and use each one for a different sound and some as drum modules
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Old 10th October 2007, 06:53 PM   #50
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I had E4 and S760 and I still have ASR10.

S760 has very powerful digital filters and sounds big and somewhat dirty. It sits nice in the mix but it has somewhat slow workflow. I sold it because I prefer my emax for dirty/fat sounds and ASR10 for cleaner sounds so there was no need for roland.

E4 has "artificial" analog sound that I just did not like at all. It is very hard to make sounds that sit well in the mix. Emu got its reputation with E2 and E3 series (analog filters) not with E4, which are in my opinion, far behind in sound. Both E2 (and EMAX1) and E3 are fantastic. E2/EMAX are very dirty and fat, E3 is cleaner and smoother, more hi-fi (but not very reliable).

ASR-10 is just great. It is not "that" dirty (unless in 30kHz mode), it has a special sound that is hard to describe. It does not change original sound that much, it just makes it a little bit more punchy and it fits great in the mix. It has also very fast and friendly interface.

ASR-10 is my choice!
I guess I never consciously noticed that about the ASR-10, but that is really true. Samples fit better into the mix with this thing. Now I have to get mine fixed, its been in the closet for 5 years
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Old 10th October 2007, 06:56 PM   #51
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The ASR-10 is a bang for the buck for it's intuitive interface alone. If you can get a rack unit, it comes with SCSI so loading and saving banks with a Jazz or Zip drive is a breeze. The rack unit also comes with 8 outs allowing you to channel your drum samples to it's own out for proper equalization on a mixer. I am surprised no one has mentioned its powerful effect section that has very unique and rare goodies like special filters, speaker emulations, distortion, compression, wah, pitch shift, and so many others in addition to reverb, delay, chorus, flange, phaser all with detailed parameters. Re-sampling through those effects is just plain fun IMO. It's conveters are not gritty, but do have a character on their own. It's sampling character is one that does not over-do it on the high end or the low end, it's a very plain sound allowing for equalization on all specturms. IMO, this is simply one of the best samplers out there by far.

Then again, isn't it the person behind the sampler and not the sampler itself?!?!?!?
I can say, once you get used to all of the error codes and crashes, this thing is truly fun to work with.
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Old 10th October 2007, 08:40 PM   #52
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I hate that errors on ASR10R ERROR 113, error 149...
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Old 10th October 2007, 08:54 PM   #53
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I honestly can't tell the difference between hw/sw samplers in a mix.

When A/B hw vs sw, make sure you use the same sample, same envelope settings, same *effects*, routed into the same audio bus and out the same speakers.
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Old 11th October 2007, 06:59 PM   #54
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Here's something that bugs the hell out of me. Propellerhead's Recycle. I was looking into its feature because I wanted to get something with HDMI support so I could scsi my ESI-4000 and transfer samples over that way instead of using the SPDIF all the time. Straight off of their website:

So... the still huge base of people that use hardware samplers just doesn't exist now?

yet another reason why i keep using my old software.
the annual upgrade cycle is madness.
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Old 11th October 2007, 07:06 PM   #55
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yet another reason why i keep using my old software.
the annual upgrade cycle is madness.
Spot on.

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Old 11th October 2007, 07:33 PM   #56
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The NI Kontakt, Mach5, Digis one, Es24, Halion are all ultra bloated and yet none of them offer what a samplist needs. Incredibly as far as I know you cannot sample in to a soft synth and that part of the process is the very process that can give you a creative spur because your using your ears not your eyes.
Just wanted to alert all of you to something that has really gotten me excited about Digi's sampler called Structure.

There is a FREE version you can grab too that is actually fairly useful still a bit buggy though.

Anyway, the difference with this soft sampler is that you can drag and drop regions into it from the edit window....and IT WORKS!

Dragging regions from the session into Structure changes the way I think about soft synths and it is a WONDEFUL feature. It does change things for me as far as inspiration.

For all the crap that Digi gets.......I got to say that Structure is actually IMPRESSIVE.

When I get a new faster computer I will def. consider getting the full blown version which is 450$.
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Old 12th October 2007, 11:24 PM   #57
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I hate that errors on ASR10R ERROR 113, error 149...
I have had my ASR-10 since 1994, always loading with the latest O.S. ver 3.5. I have NEVER had a crash or any error codes and my ASR. And it has a LOT of miles on it.

Old, bad or generic 3 inch floppies will give you an error. Using a Zip Drive has never given me problems. It's possible the RAM has gone bad, RAM doesn't last forever you know.
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Old 13th October 2007, 12:47 AM   #58
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I had ASR back in 1994 and loed sound hated ERRORS..I sold it

and again befor 3 years bought another ASR 10R

I love it
Till now no problem ;)
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Old 16th October 2007, 07:38 AM   #59
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Emu e64 - nice snare sound. Softens the highs compared to the ultra. This is a really nice machine with eos 4.2. Affordable to the max, oldskool sound, but with modern editing. Really nice.

Emu e6400 ultra - nice gitty highend
Emu X2 - Clean

Love them all.

Sometimes I think about Akai, Not very much though.
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